How can a person be saved?
The Bible is very clear on what a person must do to be saved. A person must repent of their sins.
Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel. Mark 1:14- 15.
Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38.
Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, Acts 3:19.
Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, "because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead. Acts 17:30-31.
What does it mean to repent? To repent means to feel sincere regret or sincere guilt about something you have done wrong, to the point that you seek forgiveness from the person that you have done wrong against. When we break God's law, then we sin against God, and when we sin against God, then we need to seek forgiveness from God for the sin's that we have committed against Him. If a person steals a sum of money from somebody, a crime has been committed against that person, and a crime has been committed against the state, and a crime has been committed against God. A simple way of saying this is, that person has sinned, or committed a sin against another person, against the state, and against God. Now this sin or crime has to be dealt with, so the question is, how is this done. Well, you can start by paying back the money that you stole and seeking forgiveness from the person that you stole it from, they may or may not forgive you. The state can give you a jail sentence for your crime or sin against the state, and when you have served that sentence, as far as the state is concerned you have paid for your crime. Now you must deal with your sin against God. So, the question is how can you deal with your sin against God? The answer is you cannot deal with your sin against God, it is not humanly possible to do so. There is noting that a person can do to blot out their sin, or sins that they have committed against God.
Does that mean that a person’s sins against God cannot, or will not ever be forgiven?
The answer is absolutely not, it is our sin that keeps us from the presence of God and stops us from going to Heaven when we die. But the good news is that God loves each human being so much that He has provided a way for each person’s sins to be forgiven, to be blotted out, to be made clean so that each person can enter Heaven when this life is over. The Bible teaches us in, John 3:16,
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him {God's Son the Lord Jesus Christ} should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16.
If we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and accept that His death on the Cross of Calvary paid the price for our sins, then it is not that our sins will be forgiven, they are forgiven. If we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour then we receive God's free gift of Salvation, and are certain and sure to enter Heaven when this life is over. In 1John 1:9, the Bible teaches us,
If we confess our sins, He {God} is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1.John 1:9.
This is another wonderful promise from God. If we are truly sorry for the sins that we have committed and we confess them to God and seek God's forgiveness. Then God promises that He won't just forgive us our sins, but He will cleanse us of our sins. God will make us so clean that not even a trace of our sin will remain, and we can now enter Heaven when this life is over.
In Romans 10:8-10, the Bible teaches us,
But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Romans 10:8-10.
What this passage is teaching is very simple, that if you believe in your heart, and confess with your mouth that God raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, then your sins will be forgiven, and it is not that you will be saved, but that you have been saved. It is within the reach of every human being that was ever, or will ever be born to receive God's free gift of Salvation. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He provided salvation for all. But it is up to every individual to make a free will choice to either accept or reject God's free gift of Salvation. Once a man or woman recognizes the need for salvation and realizes that God has provided for their salvation through Jesus Christ, he or she must go on to accept it and embrace it. Salvation is simply a process of confessing and believing. A person must confess that Jesus is Lord, which signifies a persons realization and full acceptance that the Lord Jesus Christ must have full rule over their life with all of His righteous requirements. This is how a person receives the greatest free gift that mankind has ever been given, God's free gift of Salvation.